Sect and Clan

Note from the Regent (Clan is equal to Tremere): You each receive the following note:

Magus (your name here)

I will be making attending Court on Friday, February 15 for the purpose of meeting with the new Prince. Please keep the following guidelines in mind during and after my visit.

1.) Never refer to me by my title of Regent. Simply refer to me as 'Dr. Jones'.

2.) Do not freely distribute information about me. If persons press, you may indicate that I am a respected member of your clan with a noteworthy history of service to both Clan and Sect. Additional information may be shared in exchange for boons. If people are particularly nosy, you should simply suggest that they ask me if they are curious.

3.) Please remember that unless I specifically inform you otherwise, you are to assume that everything you say and do in Elysium will be recorded.

I look forward to seeing each of you this Friday.

Sinerely,
Adam Jones
Regent of the First Circle of Mysteries

Other

Gifts from the Ex-Prince (Personal for Bojan Petrov): Before leaving, Helen Rogerson introduces you to her contacts in the NYPD. You now have Police x2. She also gives you an odd stick that she got from the Kuei-Jin. She informs you that if you hit someone with it, they will freak out. A lot. She leaves you a note with the instructions for the stick - "You're probably the only one who'll use it properly."

Gifts from the Ex-Prince (Personal for Eugene "Brody" Wright): Before leaving, Helen Rogerson introduced you to many of her influence contacts. You now have Bureaucracy x3, Transportation x2, Politics x1 and Finance x2. She also redirects her legal contacts to work for you. Her legal contacts are not enough to get you up to a Legal x4, but they are enough to give you 4 extra GROW points towards it. You now have 7/9 GROW points. You will not have to spend XP to buy Legal x4 influence. She leaves you a note saying "Don't fuck up."

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy x1: There has been a recent crackdown on homeless shelters and soup kitchens that are not meeting code. Most of the affected facilities were affiliated with religious organizations.

Ethical concerns have been raised regarding Gov. Spitzer's aborted nomination of Angela Sparks-Beddoe as chairwoman of the Public Service Commission, and good riddance - she was trouble from the start.

Bureaucracy x2: The crackdown was driven, in part, by increased complaints about sub-par facilities.

Bureaucracy x5: The crackdown on soup kitchens and homeless shelters was aided by detailed information provided by persons working at the affected facilities or by persons affiliated with their sponsors. Without this information, many fewer facilities would have been affected.

Someone from the force has been really going out on a limb trying to keep relations smooth.

Church

Church x1: There has been a recent crackdown on homeless shelters and soup kitchens affiliated with religious organizations.

Church x2: There was a flurry of surprise inspections and the inspectors were much less reasonable than they had been in the past.

Church x4: The inspectors seemed to just home in on every niggling little code violation.

A new Arabic tutoring program has been set up at the Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq mosque in Queens, striving to teach the language of the Koran to those Muslims in the area who might not be well versed in it.

Church x5: While the imam at Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq is happy with the new Arabic learning program, many in the congregation have found the primary teacher (who is white) to be noticeably unsettling.

Church x6: Some person who worked for or with the shut-down shelters and kitchens seem remarkably unsurprised by what has happened.

Finance

Finance x1: The SEC is definitely looking into this latest Vontaug weirdness. If it was stock price manipulation, they were really, really stupid about it.

Finance x2: In the wake of the massive scandal at Societe General, regulators are starting to make noise about 'improved' accountability standards for the financial services sector.

Finance x3: The massive scandal at Societe General has led to a frantic but quiet effort by New York banks to make sure that they aren't vulnerable to similar frauds.

Health

Health x1: The death of Upper East Side therapist Dr. Kathryn Faughey Tuesday night has shocked the New York mental health community.

Health x3: Someone has been contacting local lobbyists specializing in health care issues. They want to figure out how to more effectively protect the industry against unnecessary or overly harsh legislation.

Health x4: This effort is related to the recent legislation governing blood handling, record-keeping and disposal.

High Society

High Society x1: It's Valentine season, and we all know what that means - the well-to-do all compete to see who can most elaborately and expensively demonstrate their affection.

High Society x2: Museum of Modern Art Director Glenn D. Lowry managed to out-maneuver attempts by Associate Director Kathy Halbreich to edge him out. Rumors has it that Halbriech is spitting mad. Its not clear what she'll do, but it should be interesting to watch.

High Society x3: Some local society figures seem ... pleased at the brutal killing of Upper East Side therapist Dr. Kathryn Faughey.

Someone is playing the meet & greet game in high society circles...

Industry

Industry x1: Ethical concerns have been raised regarding Gov. Spitzer's aborted nomination of Angela Sparks-Beddoe as chairwoman of the Public Service Commission. She had previously been an energy lobbyist.

Industry x3: Ms. Angela "I'm better than you" Sparks-Beddoe seemed to get a bit big for her britches very quickly. Seems she couldn't be bothered to wait for senate confirmation before trying to deal with old grudges from her lobbyist days.

Legal

Legal x1: Ethical concerns have been raised regarding Gov. Spitzer's aborted nomination of Angela Sparks-Beddoe as chairwoman of the Public Service Commission. She had previously been an energy lobbyist.

The New York State Court of Appeals recently (finally) forced restaurants to actually give waiters the mandatory 'service fees' charged to large parties.

Legal x3: In the wake of the massive scandal at Societe General, regulators are making noise about 'improved' accountability standards for the financial services sector.

Media

Media x1:The Times will cut about 100 jobs. The editors are trying to spin it as a result of a decline in the industry, but declining editorial and quality standards certainly have something to do with it.

Media x3: Dragonrax? Oh god, not another vigilante... Still, makes for a good story. I wonder when the Dirge and Times will break down and cover it.

Media x5: Rumor has it Sulzberger at the Times is very, very displeased that Hillary hasn't gotten the nomination clinched yet. CNN is also a bit miffed, but no one throws a tantrum like Sulzberger.

Occult

Occult x1: Some kind of Lucasta memorial is being planned. Its causing a ruckus among the Lucasta groups.

Most of the rest of the 'occult' community is trying not to get involved.

Occult x2: Lucasta cults the Society of the Unbroken Mind and the Heralds of the Lightbringer are both gearing up for some kind of 'memorial' to their hero. They hold that the May 11 Lucasta sighting was faked by the forces of darkness. These plans have increased tension between SUM and HotL as they compete for the memorial that 'best' commemorates and reflects the values and teachings of Lucasta - whatever those are, and between SUM and HotL and the Society of the Age of the Lightbringer, which believes that the May 11 sighting was, in fact, Lucasta and marked the beginning of a new age. Various splinter sects are lining up with one side or the other.

Occult x4: The Shepherds of the Bitter Flower are recruiting. Not much is known about them, except that they use a blackened, dead rose as their main symbol.

Occult x5: The Shepherds of the Bitter Rose follow a sort of new age, eclectic, egalitarian ideal. They're only really notable for their intensity.

Police

Police x1: The car bomb on Kenny G's car was made by professionals.

The increased NYPD presence in Staten Island is definitely making things look calmer, but under the surface things are still nuts.

Police x2: There was some kind of big secret meeting this week about the reorganization. Rumors has it discussed which VIPs in the department are going to be eased out... people are scrambling trying to figure out what was said.

Despite outward enthusiasm, there is official pressure not to look too closely into the death of therapist Dr. Kathryn Faughey.

Police x3: Over the past month or so, there have been a lot of calls reporting sketchy activity at some Manhattan club called the Sebau. This past week, we finally go the go ahead to do something, but all three times we picked someone up, they turned out to be innocent. Fucking prank-callers.

Police x4: The calls about the Sebau keep coming in, however, and the club is threatening legal action over 'harassment.'

Police x5: There's been some weird vigilante activity of late...

Politics

Politics x1: The Bloomberg gun control machine is licking its chops over the Illinois University shooting. Forward the liberal agenda! (I mean, it was a terrible tragedy that should not be exploited for political gain).

Politics x3: The local health industry is still whining about the new record-keeping requirements for banked blood.

Politics x4: There is a push out of City Council to force even more restaurants to display nutrition information (at present, only about %10 of restaurants are required to do so).

Politics x5: Word has it one of the big smuggling rings is involved with some new maritime support issue that went before the city council recently.

Street

Street x1: Staten Island continues to be in bad shape, but things are looking up compared to two weeks ago. If nothing else, the increased police presence has forced the mobsters to keep a lower profile.

Street x2: Something bad went down recently. A bunch of homeless guys went missing, and nobody really wants to talk about why.

Street x3: In addition to the disappearances, there's been a rash of people just flat out going bugfuck. Normally stable (relatively speaking) homeless sorts have been plummeting into severe cases of the crazies. There's a weird rumor going around that somebody saw something they shouldn't.

Someone in Staten Island has been making an effort to help the homeless, hungry and other borderline cases escape being caught up in the ongoing gang warfare. Some are calling her the Staten Island Good Samaritan.

Street x4: The people who disappeared generally seemed to know the guys who just went crazy. Somebody mentions that one of the "disappeared" sorts claimed he'd seen a body get dumped.

The Staten Island Good Samaritan has been particularly focusing on helping children.

Street x5: There's this warehouse in the Bronx that a lot of these guys who are messed up or gone were watching for some reason... It's BAD NEWS.

The Staten Island Good Samaritan's lessons are not always the most above-board. They not only include lessons in things like scrounging and hiding, but also discuss how to pull a con and other 'tricks.'

There's this great guy down in Brooklyn whose been really keeping an eye out for guys stuck out in the cold this winter.

Transportation

Transportation x2: Word has it one of the big smuggling rings is involved with some new maritime support issue that went before the city council recently.

Transportation x3: Word has it that there is something seriously wrong with those guys who were being followed.

Underworld

Underworld x1: The warfare in Staten Island has had to quiet down a bit due to increased police presence. That doesn't make it any less viscous.

Underworld x2: Some guys pulled a slick job on Kenny G. Quality work.

Right now, the Russians seem to be winning in Staten Island. But its really too early to tell.

Underworld x3: The bomb guys had very specific instructions from on high. As in, oddly and unnecessarily specific.

There is definite concern over the arrest of Money Laundering Carlos. More specifically, people are concerned about what will happen if he takes the stand. If someone could arrange for him not to talk to the cops, there would be a reward of some sort...

There are also other jobs open for interested snoops and hitmen.

Underworld x4: They ended up waiting for over six hours in order to place the bomb. Whoever set this up has some solid connections. They worked with another crew - hobos and bums and the like.

Underworld x5: The "bomb squad" was based in Brooklyn.

Snoops are wanted to investigate the continuing flow of high-quality sempre out of New Jersey and to investigate Harry McClin. Hitmen are wanted to take out McClin.

University

University x1: Candlelight vigils at several local schools have been planned in the wake of the shootings at Illinois University.

University x2: College administrators are quietly but frantically reviewing their student records for potential mental health risks. They don't want a copycat of Illinois University.

University x4: Someone has been making the rounds playing the 'lets be friends' game at several area colleges, including NYU and Columbia.